Into the Seven-Pillared Hall
25 Last Seed - 1 Hearth Fire, 90AN Valthrun the Prescient tells the heroes the legends surrounding Saruun Khel: an ancient abandoned Minotaur city below what has come to be known as the Thunderspire Mountain. Relatively recently, it has been rumored that the ruins of the ancient city have come under the management of a council of powerful mages (known as the Mages of Saruun.) Leaving Winterhaven, the heroes stop in Fallcrest to inform Lord Warden Faren Markelhay of the local slave trade. Lord Markelhay congratulates the party on preventing the opening of the rift and confirms their fears: several people from the local village of Riverdown have disappeared and it is feared that they were kidnapped to be sold into slavery. Markelhay then informs Relic and Lucan that their services are needed in Hammerfast. Relic, Lucan and Rolf travel with the party until they reach the crossroads that will lead the heroes to Thuderspire mountain and there the two groups bid each other farewell. The remaining group follows an overgrown path up the mountain until they find the grand entrance to the ancient Minotaur city of Saruun Khel. This 50 foot tall stone archway was cut directly into the side of the mountain and is flanked on either side by menacing minotaur statues. The party follows the road of Lanterns deep into the heart of the Thunderspire Mountain. On their way, they fortuitously come across a group of Bloodreavers threatening Rendil Halfmoon. Rendil Haflmoon's aunt, Erra Halfmoon, is the owner of the only inn in the Seven Pillared hall and gratefully convinces her to let them stay there for free for the duration of their stay. Rendil tells the party what he knows about the Bloodreaver clan and points them in the direction of the Chamber Of Eyes: a ruined shrine dedicated to the Torog where Krand and the rest of Bloodreavers have taken residence. The adventurers storms the abandoned shrine and soon finds themselves in a pitched battle with Chief Krand and the rest of the slavers. When things start to look bleak, they are joined by Rasic, an ex-slave Mul who has been tracking the Bloodreavers in his quest to exact vengeance on all slavers. After killing the last of the bloodreavers, the party finds a contract between Chief Krand and Murkelmor Grimmerzhul for the Riverdown slaves. Clan Grimmerzhul are the duergar who own a trading post in the seven-pillared hall and have been selling slaves to other denizens of the underdark. The party returns to the Seven Pillared hall and devises a poorly thought out plan in order to find where the Grimmerzhul by pretending to sell Rasic into slavery in hopes that Clan Grimmerzhul will lead them to their outpost. After their plan falls through, the party attempts to gather this information from some of the seedier areas of the hall and attract the attention of the Ordinator Arcanis - the executor of law in the Seven-Pillared hall. The Ordinator Arcanis surprises the party by informing them of the disappearance of Paldemar, one of the mages of Saruun. The Ordinator wants the party to find out where Paldemar has gone, find out if rumors of his recent activities are true, and if so, to ensure that he remains lost. The Ordinator Arcanis gives the party a map showing them the location of the Horned Helm (the outpost of the Grimmerzhul Duergar) and sends them on their way....